Quantum computation has the ability to revolutionize the treatment of patients. Quantum computing can help to detect diseases by identifying and forecasting malfunctions. But there's a threat associated here (i.e., healthcare data among the most popular cybercriminal targets, IoT devices notoriously lacking in effective safeguards, and quantum computers on the brink of an encryption/decryption breakthrough). Health agencies need a security prognosis and treatment plan as soon as possible. Healthcare companies recently worry more about the quantum security threats. The biggest threat of healthcare data breaches has come in the form of identity theft. There should be a strong mechanism to combat the security gaps in existing healthcare industry. If the healthcare data are available on the network, an attacker may try to modify, intercept, or even view this data stream. With the use of quantum security, the quantum state of these photons changes alert the security pros that someone is trying to breach the link.
Quantum computation has the ability to revolutionize the treatment of patients. Quantum computing can help to detect diseases by identifying and forecasting malfunctions. But there's a threat associated here (i.e., healthcare data among the most popular cybercriminal targets, IoT devices notoriously lacking in effective safeguards, and quantum computers on the brink of an encryption/decryption breakthrough). Health agencies need a security prognosis and treatment plan as soon as possible. Healthcare companies recently worry more about the quantum security threats. The biggest threat of healthcare data breaches has come in the form of identity theft. There should be a strong mechanism to combat the security gaps in existing healthcare industry. If the healthcare data are available on the network, an attacker may try to modify, intercept, or even view this data stream. With the use of quantum security, the quantum state of these photons changes alert the security pros that someone is trying to breach the link.
Quantum computation has the ability to revolutionize the treatment of patients. Quantum computing can help to detect diseases by identifying and forecasting malfunctions. But there's a threat associated here (i.e., healthcare data among the most popular cybercriminal targets, IoT devices notoriously lacking in effective safeguards, and quantum computers on the brink of an encryption/decryption breakthrough). Health agencies need a security prognosis and treatment plan as soon as possible. Healthcare companies recently worry more about the quantum security threats. The biggest threat of healthcare data breaches has come in the form of identity theft. There should be a strong mechanism to combat the security gaps in existing healthcare industry. If the healthcare data are available on the network, an attacker may try to modify, intercept, or even view this data stream. With the use of quantum security, the quantum state of these photons changes alert the security pros that someone is trying to breach the link.
The Internet of Things (IoT) revolutionised healthcare by enabling remote patient monitoring, improved medication adherence, and chronic disease management. However, this interconnectedness creates vulnerabilities, especially with the looming threat of quantum computing. Quantum computers hold the power to break current encryption standards, safeguarding sensitive patient data in IoT-enabled medical devices. This chapter explores the looming quantum threat to healthcare IoT security. It delves into the potential consequences of compromised encrypted data, including privacy breaches, device malfunctions, and manipulated medical records. To address these issues, the chapter introduces post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and other quantum-resistant techniques (QKD) alongside their key considerations. It analyses the resource constraints (storage, processing power) of typical healthcare IoT devices – pacemakers, monitoring tools, and telemedicine equipment – to determine suitable PQC primitives for different use cases. The chapter then discusses the challenges of implementing these techniques and explores ongoing mitigation projects worldwide.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed healthcare, facilitating remote patient monitoring, enhanced medication adherence, and chronic disease management. However, this interconnected ecosystem faces significant vulnerabilities with the advent of quantum computing, which threatens to break existing encryption standards protecting sensitive patient data in IoT-enabled medical devices. This chapter examines the quantum threat to healthcare IoT security, highlighting the potential impacts of compromised encryption, including privacy breaches, device failures, and manipulated medical records. It introduces post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum-resistant techniques like quantum key distribution (QKD), addressing their application in resource-constrained healthcare IoT devices such as pacemakers, monitoring tools, and telemedicine systems. The chapter further explores the challenges of integrating these solutions and reviews global efforts in mitigating quantum risks, offering insights into suitable PQC primitives for various healthcare use cases.
In recent years, quantum computing has made significant contributions to many emerging technologies. However, it also poses serious security challenges to these technologies, and one of them is Healthcare Internet of Things (HC-IoT) applications. The devices used in HC-IoT often have limited power, memory, and computational resources, making them especially vulnerable to various cyberattacks. Even a small security breach could cause serious problems, from general system failures to risks that directly affect patients’ diagnoses and treatment. To address this important issue, we review research from 2017 to 2025, examining both the strengths and weaknesses of the technology across various subdomains of the healthcare system. We begin by presenting a taxonomy of healthcare, along with a breakdown of different domains where this technology has been applied or holds potential for future use. This foundation helps establish the motivation and context for the study. Next, we discuss various security threats, considering both the pre-quantum and post-quantum computing eras. Then, we explore existing studies to see what progress has been made and what is still needed. Finally, we point out key security challenges that need more attention from the research community. Lastly, we provide a comparative analysis with existing review articles to address the question of why this article is needed in the presence of published reviews.
The use of quantum computing1 in healthcare represents a significant shift with the potential to revolutionize medical research, diagnostics, and treatment. Quantum computing can process and analyze large datasets much faster than classical computing, offering new opportunities in healthcare. This paper examines the various ways quantum computing can be applied in healthcare, such as in drug discovery, genetic research, personalized medicine, and complex disease modeling. By using quantum algorithms, researchers can identify new treatment targets and simulate the effects of drugs on human biology in ways that were previously impossible, which can reduce the time and cost of bringing new drugs to market. Quantum computing also allows for analyzing large genomic datasets2, which can help tailor treatments to individual genetic profiles. Additionally, this technology helps in modeling complex biological systems and disease processes, providing insights into the mechanisms of diseases at a molecular level and enabling the development of more effective treatments. However, integrating quantum computing into healthcare comes with challenges such as technical limitations, the need for specialized expertise, data security concerns, and ethical considerations. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the potential applications of quantum computing in healthcare, addresses the associated challenges, and discusses the future directions of this growing field, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in fully utilizing quantum technologies in medicine. In recent years, quantum computing has rapidly advanced and attracted significant interest from academia and industry due to its unique ability to process information differently, resulting in previously unattainable computational capabilities. Despite its potential, the full impact of quantum computing on healthcare has not been thoroughly explored. This survey paper provides a systematic analysis of quantum computing's various capabilities in improving healthcare systems, focusing on its potential to transform compute-intensive healthcare tasks such as drug discovery, personalized medicine, DNA sequencing4, medical imaging5, and operational optimization. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature, we have developed taxonomies6 covering different aspects, including background and enabling technologies, applications, requirements, architectures, security, open issues, and future research directions, offering a comprehensive view of the quantum computing paradigm for healthcare. Our survey aims to assist new and experienced researchers in quantum computing and healthcare by helping them comprehend the current research landscape, identify potential opportunities and challenges, and make informed decisions when developing new architectures and applications for quantum computing in healthcare
Healthcare requires data encryption to safeguard sensitive patient information from unauthorized access or breaches. Encryption ensures that data is encoded into a secure format, making it unreadable to anyone without the decryption key. This helps maintain patient privacy, protects against identity theft, and ensures compliance with data protection regulations like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.). With encryption, healthcare organizations can mitigate the risk of data breaches and uphold trust with patients by ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of their medical records and personal information. Quantum cryptography emerges as a revolutionary solution, offering unparalleled encryption for healthcare data. This process initiates with the meticulous crafting of quantum states to encapsulate healthcare data securely, ensuring precise encoding. Subsequently, quantum entanglement is established between sender and receiver, creating a secure communication channel resistant to interception attempts. Quantum key distribution then generates a secure key leveraging entangled quantum states, becoming the cornerstone of encryption. Quantum encryption shields healthcare data in an impenetrable veil of secrecy, leveraging the complexities of quantum mechanics to thwart unauthorized decryption attempts. The decryption process, facilitated by the shared secure key, unveils the encrypted healthcare data exclusively to authorized parties, preserving confidentiality with unparalleled precision. The result reveals quantum cryptography's superiority in healthcare data encryption. At 150-bit key length, quantum cryptography takes 352,237 milliseconds vs. AES's 310,285 milliseconds. For a 14 KB input, quantum cryptography requires 7 milliseconds compared to AES's 12 milliseconds. These metrics highlight quantum cryptography's efficiency gains and transformative potential in healthcare data security, promising both enhanced security and efficiency benefits.